SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Coinciding with the
office of San Francisco Mayor
Ed Lee, The Westfield Group (ASX:
WDC) today debuted Westfield Labs at
the kick-off of the city's first ever Innovation Month. Surrounded
by the "who's who" of the technology community, Westfield Labs announced San Francisco will be home to the newest
global digital lab focused on innovation for the retail
ecosystem.
Westfield Labs will leverage new
social, mobile and digital technologies to help converge the
digital shopper with the physical retail world. As the hub of
digital technology innovation, San
Francisco is attracting the industry's most cutting-edge
companies from Twitter to Pinterest to Zynga, as well as digital
divisions of large corporate consumer brands. Sydney, Australia based Westfield Group adds
to the trend by bringing Westfield
Labs to the city.
"San Francisco proudly
celebrates Innovation Month Under the Dome at the Westfield San
Francisco Centre and acknowledges the many creative companies
driving job growth in our City," said San
Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.
"The launch of Westfield Labs
in San Francisco is yet another
example of the groundbreaking digital organizations moving here and
fueling the local economic growth because of our City's strength as
a leader in innovation."
Westfield San Francisco Centre is a unique property with its
iconic location and will serve as a "sand-box" to drive creativity
and innovative technologies. After successful implementations
locally, Westfield Group will be able to extend new technologies to
its 23,700 plus retailers globally and to benefit the 1.1 billion
customer visits to more than 100 locations each year. Currently,
Westfield Group generates over $40
billion for their retailers in annual retail sales.
To drive the development and adoption of innovative technology
for Westfield Group's shopping centers globally, newly appointed
Global Chief Digital Officer Kevin
McKenzie who reports into Co-CEO, Steven Lowy will lead Westfield Labs. Unlike most "lab" divisions of
corporations where research and technology development arms are
used to drive the company forward, Westfield Labs looks to benefit the retail
industry and its consumers as well.
"Westfield Labs will help the
retail industry evolve and take advantage of the technology
consumers are using today to define the shopping experience of
tomorrow," said Kevin McKenzie,
global chief digital officer at Westfield Group. "The Labs
team will have more freedom to test partnerships and products and
we look forward to taking best practices and expanding
globally."
For more information on Westfield
Labs, go to www.WestfieldLabs.com.
About Westfield Labs
Westfield Labs is a new
entity of The Westfield Group and serves as a global digital lab
focused on innovation for the retail ecosystem by leveraging the
social, mobile and digital market opportunities that converge the
digital shopper with the physical world.
The new team and office is based in San Francisco Bay Area, the global hub of
innovation and the development of digital technology. Over time,
new products, partnerships and services will be commercialized
globally. Westfield Labs plans to
transform emerging ideas and technologies into viable businesses
that move the retail industry forward. For more information
visit www.westfieldlabs.com.
About The Westfield Group
The Westfield Group (ASX Code: WDC) is an internally managed,
vertically integrated, shopping centre group undertaking ownership,
development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property
management, leasing and marketing activities and employing over
4,000 staff worldwide. The Westfield Group has interests in and
operates one of the world's largest shopping centre portfolios with
investment interests in 109 shopping centres across Australia, the
United States, the United
Kingdom, New Zealand and
Brazil, encompassing around 23,700
retail outlets and total assets under management in excess of
A$61.7 bn.
This release contains forward-looking statements, including
statements regarding future earnings and distributions. These
forward-looking statements are not guarantees or predictions of
future performance, and involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond our
control, and which may cause actual results to differ materially
from those expressed in the statements contained in this release.
You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements are based on
information available to us as of the date of this presentation.
Except as required by law or regulation (including the ASX Listing
Rules) we undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking
statements.
SOURCE Westfield Group